Have you ever sat down eating a scrumptuous snack (with guilt you skipped cheat day), just wondering as to what your purpose in life is? Perhaps aimlessly staring at the wall wondering if your existence is to struggle, go to school, work, have a family or live a solo dream, and then die? Maybe the definition of life is literally how you make it to be and that that’s just what it’s supposed to be. Or not.

We as a human species tend to ponder about the concept of our meaning, origin, and if the choices and paths we take lead to so called “destinies”, “meant-to-bes”, or being at the “right place at the right time”. Thoughts have existed throughout history and today that perhaps our answers can’t be fully answered through just the physical means of the world which can be limited, but through what we can’t see such as what’s still undiscovered like the spiritual. 

It’s a plausible thought to consider this existence of what’s spiritual given the plethora of potential horror movies created (just kidding), but on a more serious note, personal testimonies or documentaries recording the existence of spirits. But all in all, we can’t completely refute the concept given the fact we have energy that can’t be created nor destroyed that hence must end up somewhere, to even what caused our universe to appear knowing no physical human existed to witness such an event. Whether one believes or not, we won’t know until death, so what we can do is at least have an open perspective which is why religion has been used to resolve complexities such as this. 

So what’s the source that can be used to venture towards discovering these answers, our origin, the purpose as to why we’re here, and why things are the way they are? - the Bible. But before running into our preconceptions regarding this, let’s try to reason first because there must be a reason why at one point it was known to be one of the most stolen books in the world.

In understanding concepts that are difficult to fathom, it’s important to utilize a standard as a means to base our learning verses the plethora of interpretations people may give. Different sources date the timeline of scripture but in accumulating them, the Bible is roughly 4000 years from the book of Genesis to the era of Jesus’ First Coming, and roughly 2000 years between the First Coming up to Revelation. In understanding the chronology and connections through the references made throughout, you can recognize the origin as to how the bible came to be, how God has authored it, the concept of what’s spiritual and God’s chosen people, the reasoning for their actions, consequences, blessings, and relation as to how it connects to believers today, to even the purpose and will set for us in our creation, and the like. All it takes is understanding the scripture in its entirety first before making a judgement.

One step in being able to understand the Bible given it may be difficult to read and understand on your own is to do a community Bible study and find someone who can teach it. It’s best to be wise who you choose to learn from and to understand it through the perspective of the author, God, versus mere interpretations anyone can make that may lead to more confusion rather than certainty. Other final pieces of advice is to find a study that’s preferably non-denominational so that its teachings are not as biased towards one perspective, having the capability to reason through using scripture as evidence and the standard, and to be able to ask questions. 

Sometimes we don’t know whether or not something can benefit us in the long run, but in acknowledging our ignorance, curiosity, and the fact we only live once in the world, it’s worth the shot to at least try rather than looking back regretting at the fact we could have done something to help ourselves.

All in all, there is still hope in us being able to understand our purpose in getting to know the bible from God’s perspective, and many resources can assist in even taking the first step such as Bible Study for All. 

Our life is not purposeless, remember that!